Search Results for: LED

OLED – LCD or Plasma?

January 28, 2008 by 2 Comments

OLED-LCD-PLASMA
Sound and Vision magazine have run a nice comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of OLED, LCD and Plasma screens. With all 3 types of screen being an option it does make you wonder which you want to purchase with your hard earned cash. CES which has just passed a few weeks ago had a lot of TV’s on display which tends to make the choice even more overwhelming.

OLED (organic light emitting diode) is fairly new to the TV scene. The most noticeable feature with OLED’s is the contrast. This is due to OLED being a self-emitting display technology which requires no back light. Each OLED pixel can be switched on as needed because the tiny cells respond instantly. Also OLED screens happen to be wafer thin too which is an added bonus as well as having a wide viewing angle like the plasma screens. Mix this with HDTV resolutions and the large screen and you are on to a winner. On the downside, screens are not that big yet and the prices are quite high. But with the screens only really appearing over the last year there is no doubt that prices will go down while screen sizes increase.

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Filed Under: Tech News

Radio Controlled Hovercraft

January 18, 2008 by Leave a Comment

RC Hovercraft
The Radio Controlled Hovercraft is capable of running across land, water, ice or snow. It has a dual cushion to provide lift, but keep the air tucked away inside. It has 3 motors inside and 2 propellers to keep it hovering and moving.

It’s the perfect office type toy for those with boring jobs.

Via: MadaboutGadgets

Filed Under: Gadget Toys

MacBook Air Revealed

January 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment

macbook_air1
Yesterday, Apple revealed it’s latest goodies to be made available. This time the winner of the show was the MacBook Air which is a seriously slim MacBook with the option of a flash based hard drive. The MacBook Air has some impressive features with the size of the thing being most noticeable. It measures just 0.76″ thick which is slim compared to a Sony Vaio and it weighs just 3 pounds. The screen is 13.3″ and wide-screen backlit with LED’s. Resolutions range from 720 x 480 up to 1280 x 800. An integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery powers the MacBook Air which can keep it running for 5 hours with wireless enabled. That alone is a fairly impressive number. The processors options are either 1.6Ghz or 1.8Ghz and the unit comes standard with an 80GB HDD with the option for a 64GB SSD drive. SSD is the way to go, but does add a hefty number on to the total ($1299 extra). If you can afford to splash our for the extra .2 GHZ and SSD then do it.

macbook_air2

For connectivity you are looking at Wireless 802.11n draft specification with backwards compatibility for a/b/g. Bluetooth is 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate).

macbook_air3

Another nice feature about the MacBook Air is the backlit keyboard and a multi touch mouse pad which works in the same way a multi touch screen on the iPhone works. If you want to zoom, you just gesture with moving your fingers apart etc…

Overall it’s a very nice MacBook and well worth pre ordering.

Product Page Via: Geeky-Gadgets

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets

USB 3.0 Revealed

January 12, 2008 by 22 Comments

USB 3_0
USB 2.0 is way cooler then the previous version as it could run up to 480Mbps. However, that is going to be smashed through soon due to the release of the USB 3.0 standard. This new standard will be capable of transfer speeds up to 4.8Gbps which is a HUGE leap of 10 times. The 3.0 specification should be with us early this year with products arriving in 2009 – 2010. USB 3.0 will be backwards compatible with 2.0 and 1.1. Also it will feature some more efficient protocols which will shut down to preserve power when not in use. The cables will be parallel optical which allows for the higher speeds. Bring it on!

Via: TheGadgetBlog

Filed Under: Tech News

LG UMPC – HSDPA Enabled

January 9, 2008 by Leave a Comment

toshiba-umpcc
Engadget managed to take LG’s new UMPC for a spin over at CES. The LG has a nice keyboard, a touch screen with stylus, can transfer data at high speed using HSDPA networks. The screen is a nice size too at 4.8 inches (wide screen). This particular model is aimed at Europe, Asia and Canada, but not the US. No doubt a similar version will be made available for the US though.

This particular model was running Vista. Hopefully with Vista’s SP1 soon to be released it will run quite nicely.

Via: Engadget

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets

SwoofTronic Pi – Light Controlled Sound

January 1, 2008 by Leave a Comment

SwoofTronic Pi
SwoofTronic Pi is a light controlled sound/audio device which you control with your hands. Light sensors on each controller vary the pitch and tone length according to how much light is let in. Let more light in on the right box and the pitch (frequency) will be increased. On the left if you let more light in then the length of the note played is increased.

SwoofTronic Pi 1
Mixing the movements of blocking light together you get some unique soothing sounds coming from the SwoofTronic Pi.

SwoofTronic Pi 2
The light sensors have 3 ways of working. The first is to use the ambient light in the room. However, if it’s dark then you can use the LED’s on the side of each box to light up the other boxes sensor. The other option is to use a small LED key ring to change the sound.

I can kind of see the SwoofTronic Pi being addictive but possibly annoying for those around you. The good news is that there is a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can keep others happy while you mellow away in random soundness. For a full “Sinclair Spectrum style” demo, check out the video after the jump.

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Filed Under: Music Gadgets

Recycled PCB Coasters

December 14, 2007 by 1 Comment

PCB-Coasters
Old technology often gets thrown away and forgotten about. There must be tons of printed circuit boards (PCB’s) that are just wasted. A company has decided to do their bit and create the PCB coaster which can be used to stand your drinks on. Each PCB coaster measures 9cm x 9cm and is carved out of old wasted circuit boards. They certainly will add a touch of geeky greenness in to any home.

Single units cost £2.75 each while a pack of 4 will cost you £10.99 at Revolve-UK.

Filed Under: Green Gadgets

Sony OLED TV Opened Up

December 6, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Sony OLED Screen
When splashing out a large amount of dollars on a 3mm thin screen the last thing you probably think of is hacking it open to see what’s inside. Of course we are now in the internet age and crazy people are out there which do this type of stuff regularly. Nikkeibp is one example as they have taken the screw drivers to the new Sony thin OLED screen to see what you find inside. Check out another picture after the jump.

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Filed Under: Displays

Recycled Circuit Board Fridge Magnet

December 5, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Recycled Circuit Board
By making use of an old recycled circuit board this fridge magnet is a perfect present for any geek. It has the circuit board, 2 keyboard keys and a couple of electrical diodes. The magnet is strong enough to not let it slip when attached to a fridge door and is a geeky way of leaving notes for your loved ones.

You can pick one of the circuit board fridge magnets for $8.00 from Etsy.

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets, Hacked Gadgets

eMail Enabled Digital Photo Frame

November 11, 2007 by Leave a Comment

eStarling eMail Wi-fi Photo Frame
The eStarling digital photo frame is a tad different to your average photo frame. It has wi-fi, but the unique part of the frame is the ability for it to pick up images from emails or from RSS feeds. This allows you to email photos from anywhere in the world and then the pictures in the email will show up automatically on the frame. An example could be where your frame is on a wall at your grandma’s house and you and the family are on holiday. So that granny can keep up with what is happening on holiday you just email photo’s to her photo frame. Let’s just hope that no spam reaches the mail box.

The next unique feature of the eStarling frame is web based access allowing you to control what photo’s appear on the frame where ever it is in the world. If you do not want family shots then connect it up to flikr with phrases such as “cool Japanese robots” and the frame will automatically download and display a flikr stream of jap robots.

When receiving the photo frame you connect it to your PC via a USB cable. This allows you to configure the wi-fi connection and connect it up to your own network. Once this part is done you do not need the USB cable anymore except when reconfiguring the wireless settings and IP information.

Security for email is also available where you can assign the digital photo frame it’s own email address (something random at your domain.com) and then configure it to only receive emails from particular email addresses should you wish.

Storage on the digital photo frame is either a compact flash or SD card.

To be honest, it looks like one killer photo frame with a lot more fancy features then the rest. Of course, a lot of people are content with just the one picture on the wall. Should you like to mess around and change the scenery then this could be for you.

3 versions of the frame are available which are 2 at 7″ which display 480 x 270 pixels and an 8″ version at 800 x 600 pixels. The difference between the 2 7″ frame is that one has an external wi-fi antenna.

Prices range from $149.99 – $269.99.

Filed Under: Displays

Samsung Bendable OLED Screen

October 26, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Samsung OLED
This OLED screen comes from Samsung and measures 4.3 inches. The cool thing about the screen is that it’s bendable. It has a 480 x 272 resolution. This is not the first bendable screen, but we are glad to see another company starting to create them. It wont be long now till roll up screens are common place.

Via: Gadgets Guide

Filed Under: Displays

Slan LED Watches

October 20, 2007 by Leave a Comment

slanledwatches
Slan LED watches are simple but look great. They do the basic functions a watch should do ie. Tell the time and date. The displays are large and made from coloured LED’s which shine fairly bright. The back of the watches are stainless steel and the strap is leather. The watches can go around 165 feet under water and cost around $100 depending on the model you get.

Via: Adult Style Watches

Filed Under: Gadget Clocks